FROM Family Fortunes to Coronation Street, the much loved entertainer reveals why playing a burglar on the soap is a little too close to home and names the controversial comedian who saved his career

When Les Dennis got a call earlier this year inviting him to screen test for the role of a petty criminal in Coronation Street, the irony of the part was not lost on him.

After burgling the house of one of the street's residents his character is jailed but then returns later in the year to feature in a storyline that examines the restorative justice process, as he meets his victim and discovers the impact of his actions on her.

But for Les the impact of burglary on family life is something he sadly understands only too well, after his home was broken into as he, his wife Claire and daughter Eleanor slept upstairs. Not only were valuable items stolen but Les realised the burglars had entered his daughter's room as she slept.

"It happened to me in London about three years ago and it was one of the reasons I decided to move out, because Eleanor was in the house," he recalls. "We had some friends staying and we heard something downstairs in the middle of the night and thought it was them. I went down about six and thought, 'Why is that window open?' and then I realised it had been jemmied.

"Claire was due to give birth any minute [to the couple's second child Thomas] and we'd packed all her stuff in the boot of the car in a bag ready. These people came in, found the keys and took the car and there was her camera and all the baby clothes in her bag.

"But that was the least of our troubles. It was the idea that they'd been in our house. Somebody went into my daughter's bedroom when she was asleep, that's the thing.

"You go through the whole thing of feeling surprised and then realising things have gone. It's a buildup and you're in shock and then there's a relief that something worse didn't happen."

Television viewers will see Les make his Coronation Street debut on March 24 as Michael Rogers who breaks into Gail McIntyre's home. Gail (Helen Worth) disturbs him in the act and he runs away but she is left traumatised and afraid to be in the house alone.

Les, 60, says: "I know what it feels like, that violation when somebody has been in your house. You find yourself feeling angry and I would like to have seen them face to face. I don't know how sympathetic I would have been personally."

While Les's character is caught and punished, the same did not happen when the police caught up with the gang who broke into Les's home in Highgate, north London.

"The police did find the guys and nothing happened. Things were too busy and it was one of those things that became so frustrating. We had the police round and I said I was going to put barbed wire up on my fence and they said, 'That's an offence, you can't do that. It's against their human rights to hurt their hands when they're burgling you.' I thought, 'You know what? Draw a line and move on.'

"I think I'm very trusting. I don't want to become somebody who bars the doors and sits with a baseball bat under my bed but I do have a big alarm. We all have to be security alert don't we?"

While playing the part may bring back bad memories, Les is not the sort of person to dwell on them. Not least because the role - which is initially a six-month contract but could last longer - marks the latest step in the renaissance of his 40-year career.

I think I'm very trusting. I don't want to become somebody who bars the doors and sits with a baseball bat under my bed but I do have a big alarm

Les Dennis

After winning ITV talent show New Faces in 1974 he became one of the team on Russ Abbot's Madhouse before forming a comedy partnership with fellow impressionist Dustin Gee which led to their own series, The Laughter Show.

One of the most popular duos on television in the mid-1980s, the pair could do no wrong and even after Dustin's death, Les continued as a successful solo performer becoming the host of Family Fortunes from 1987 to 2002.

But away from the screen he was experiencing problems in his personal life. He had married actress Amanda Holden, his second wife, in 1995 but in 2000 it was revealed in the press that Amanda had cheated on him with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey.

The couple briefly split then got back together but it proved a torrid time as Les, an old-school comedian, began to feel past his prime and eclipsed by Amanda.

Bewildered and unhappy he entered the second series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2002, where an outpouring of public sympathy saw him come second to Take That's Mark Owen. The inevitable split with Amanda came later that year and for a while it seemed as if Les had hit rock bottom.

But today he insists he has no regrets about his decision to take part. "When I came out I thought, 'Well, maybe that wasn't my greatest decision,' and the phone didn't ring for a while. But then Ricky Gervais rang.

"And if I hadn't done Celebrity Big Brother and he hadn't been watching he wouldn't have written the twisted, demented version of Les Dennis! So every cloud… Small doors open to bigger doors I think," he reflects.

That phone call from Gervais led to Les playing a self-deprecating, washed-up version of himself in the first series of the dark comedy Extras in 2005.

People still remember it to this day and Ricky judges it to be one of the best-ever episodes. Almost overnight Les transformed himself from cheesy, game-show host to national treasure and his career began to pick up.

No longer seen as just a comic and presenter, he began landing serious acting roles in such television dramas as New Street Law, The Bill and Holby City and found himself in demand in the theatre, touring in various productions up and down the country.

"I credit Ricky Gervais with a lot of the change in my career because if I hadn't done Extras I wouldn't have been offered the kind of roles I've been offered on stage and then I wouldn't have eventually got here in Coronation Street.

"I have a lot to thank him for. For helping my career reinvention. Everyone needs a boot now and again!" He has also found personal happiness.

He and life coach Claire have two children Eleanor, five, and Thomas, two. The family live in Cheshire, having moved north last year to be closer to Les's extended family in his native Merseyside.

Coronation Street has always been one of his favourite television shows - who can forget his famous 'I dooon't really knoooow' impression of newsagent Mavis Riley - yet when he moved north he had no inkling that a part in the show would ever be on the cards.

Les is in a touring production of the play The Perfect Murder so will initially only make a brief appearance on the cobbles before rejoining the show properly in late spring, when viewers will see Gail visiting Michael in prison, before the duo strike up an unlikely friendship.

"Joining the cast is a dream come true for me," says Les, who feels that you can influence your destiny even though you are not necessarily the master of it.

"I really believe in the idea of asking the universe because I did ask the universe and these things have happened. I moved to Cheshire and then this came along.